Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Fast, Yang Ling’s actions were too fast! The Man-eating Vines and warriors of the Church nearby only reacted after Yang Ling tamed and transported the giant Man-eating Vine into the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda.
“Sir, Sir…”
The leader of the knights shouted as he ran forward with the remaining two knights, extending his hand to prop up the falling Red-robed Cardinal Kayseri. At the same time, the rest of the Man-eating Vines shifted their focus, quickly surrounding Yang Ling.
Hmph, they’re asking for death!
Looking at the blood-soaked leader of the knights and his two subordinates, seeing the pale, wobbly Kayseri pressing on his wound, then seeing the Man-eating Vines approaching him from all directions, Yang Ling let out a cold grunt, then summoned a bunch of Magical Beasts in an instant. Amongst the beasts was the giant Man-eating Vine that he had just tamed.
Chitter…
Following the strange cry of the giant Man-eating Vine, the Man-eating Vines that were swarming toward Yang Ling retracted their spine-covered appendages and turned to heavily surround Kayseri and the three knights. There were cold gleams of light in their sharp spines, causing the scalp of the three knights to crawl.
Even though they had suffered heavy casualties, there were just too many Man-eating Vines. Many of them had died, but another group of them immediately swarmed out from within the cave. Even though the attack radius or speed of the Man-eating Vines that had just came out were incomparable to the Man-eating Vines that they had encountered earlier, they had the advantage in terms of numbers.
“You… Just who are you?” Kayseri struggled to take a breath as he stared at Yang Ling who had suddenly appeared. He fought the pain as he pressed on his wound, “I am the Red-robed Cardinal of the Roweya Area in the Delar Empire. Even if you kill me, the Church will never let you off!”
Looking at the giant Man-eating Vine respectfully guarding by Yang Ling’s side, looking at the many Man-eating Vines surrounding them, yet strangely not launching an attack, Kayseri could not understand the situation. At that moment, given that he did not know of Yang Ling’s identity, he hoped that he could avert this crisis by invoking the name of the Church.
“Hehe, who I am is not important!” Yang Ling let out a cold smile as he looked at the pale Kayseri.
The influence of the Church was indeed massive, able to suppress even the Dark Association. But as long as he killed the cardinal and erased the evidence in this dilapidated valley, even the Church will not be able to pin it on him, no matter how great their influence was.
Oh, strange, to think that the Blood Elf Dagger is unable to absorb the Blood Essence in his body. Just what is going on?
Originally, Yang Ling had been prepared to get the giant Man-eating Vine issue a command for the many Man-eating Vines to swarm forward and end the battle quickly, in case anything happened. However, he could not help but feel confused when he saw Kayseri last this long despite his injury, as well as his rapidly clotting wounds.
All this while, be it Magical Beasts or assassins, the Blood Elf Dagger would immediately devour the other party’s Blood Essence like a bottomless hole as long as it pierced through its target’s body, turning the other party into a mummy within the blink of an eye. He did not expect Kayseri to not only not become a dried-up corpse, his wounds instead seemed to heal automatically!
An influential identity, powerful magical spells, massive amounts of Magical Energy, strange abilities…
Looking at the exceptional Kayseri, Yang Ling suddenly had a thought. Not only will his Wizard Power and mental energy reach new heights when he becomes a mid-level Heaven WIzard, he will also experience a breakthrough in his Soul Tampering Technique. When that time comes, he will be able to turn his enemies into puppets under his control and successfully obtain the other party’s memories and secrets.
According to the explanation on the stele, the puppets created by the Wizard Technique will have stiff movements and reactions at the start. With added training over a period of time, the puppets will quickly regain their original movements and demeanor.
There were disadvantages and advantages to the Soul Tampering Technique when compared to directly taming the creature!
Ever since he unintentionally tamed the Heavenly Fox Yuna, he had secretly caught a few troops that were camping in the wilderness as an experiment, but they all ended up failing; He could only successfully tame a Beastman once every ten tries. It seems as though it was harder to tame intelligent races who were physically similar to humans. He did not know if it was because he was still too weak, or that there were some other reasons.
Also, every creature that he tamed will have a faint symbol between their brows or at their vital areas. An ordinary person might not pay any attention to it, but he definitely will not be able to hide it from those who did their homework!
The Soul Tampering Technique was different. As long as he had enough Wizard Power and mental energy, he would be able to create puppets that fell under his control. Even though their reactions would not be as quick as they were in the past, it was not impossible for the puppets to fool the people around him if he trained them for some time.
The influential Church would definitely have relevant records on the secret behind the disappearance of the Ancient Summoners and Ancient Wizards, and he as an outsider will have difficulties obtaining these secrets. If that is the case, nurturing a puppet and seeking to achieve a breakthrough within the Church itself was definitely the most suitable method. As a Red-robed Cardinal with a certain level of authority, Kayseri was definitely a candidate he could not get too many of.
“Hmph, the Church has a large number of reinforcements nearby. Even if you kill us, you would definitely not be able to escape our pursuit!” Seeing Yang Ling silent in deliberation, Kayseri thought that he did not dare attack, fearing the Church’s influence. While he was worried, he finally saw hope for survival.
After having been hit by Yang Ling’s surprise attack, he felt as though the sharp Blood Elf Dagger was a hungry slime. Trying its best to absorb his near depleted Magical Energy and blood in his body. If not for having once received the blessing of the Pope in the Holy Palace and having an exceptional constitution, he would long have become a withered corpse.
Even though he still had a Teleportation Scroll in his robes, he no longer had the ability to activate it given his depleted Magical Energy. The only way for him to escape is hoping that the other party would not dare kill him after knowing of his identity, fearing the Church’s power. Even though he did not know the relationship the Man-eating Vines had with Yang Ling at that moment, he could faintly sense that only Yang Ling had the ability to spare him.
Pursued by the Church?
Yang Ling let out a cold laugh as he looked at Kayseri trying to use the name of the Church to avert the crisis, ordering the Magical Beast army to act immediately.
In that instant, the leader of the knights and his two subordinates had their armor blasted open by the Evil Eye Tyrant and the many Evil Eyes before having their hearts pierced through by the Man-eating Vines; The heavily injured Kayseri was tightly bound by the giant Man-eating Vine, giving him no chance to even commit suicide, much less flee for his life.
After casting the Soul Tampering Technique to knock Kayseri out, Yang Ling searched out all of the treasures on his body. Amongst those was the Space Ring on his finger. He then summoned the Withered Tree Warrior to clean up the scene and collected all of the weapons, armor and magical staffs of the Church’s army.
Blood sacs of the Man-eating Vines, Teleportation Scroll…
After giving a cursory look at his spoils of war, Yang Ling stuffed the items into his own Space Ring. Even though he did not know what the blood sacs of the Man-eating Vines could be used for for the time being, he was sure that they had immense value, given that even a Red-robed Cardinal like Kayseri did not bear to miss out on them.
It looks like he had to seize the time and train so that he can quickly turn Kayseri into a puppet after he advanced to mid-level Heaven Wizard. He had to obtain his memories as soon as possible!
After flipping through the interesting gimmicks in Kayseri’s Space Ring, Yang Ling knew that he had to seize the time to train. Creating a perfect puppet requires time, and he had to get Kayseri back into the Church before they noticed anything off so that he can one day find out about the secrets he required.
What secrets lie within the cave?
After keeping the spoils of war, Yang Ling raised his head to look at the steep cliffs around the surrounding low-lying shrubs, realizing that he was already at the deepest parts of the Shauna Valley. If the relic of the giant dragon was here, then the cave should be the only entrance.
After tossing the unconscious Kayseri into a corner in the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda, Yang Ling hesitated no longer to explore the cave under the protection of a large group of Horned Bee Beasts. Even though he had already successfully tamed the giant Man-eating Vine that was akin to a Magical Beast champion, and that there should logically be no more sources of danger left, Yang Ling still summoned a large bunch of speedy Horned Bee Beasts to protect himself as a precaution.
The entrance of the strange cave was wide and overgrown with low-lying shrubs, within it were little green Man-eating Vines. Some were the height of humans, clinging onto the sturdy stone walls; Others were the length of chopsticks, coiling themselves around the smaller pebbles…
Could this be the nest of the Man-eating Vines?
Yang Ling had an epiphany as he recalled the Man-eating Vines furiously attacking the Holy Barrier of the Church’s army like moths to a flame. He finally understood why they would go all out against the army of the Church.
After walking forward for a distance, he suddenly heard the sound of flowing water. In his doubt, he increased his speed, discovering an underground river after making a turn! The river was a few meters wide, with rows of tiny saplings growing out of both sides. Furthermore, Man-eating Vines that were clustered into a ball would frequently enter the area and dip the blood sacs into the underground river.
Yang Ling soon understood what was going on after looking through the memories of the giant Man-eating Vine.
As it turned out, this was a natural cave. The underground river maintained a certain temperature all year round, and was filled with necessary minerals required for the growth of the Man-eating Vines. Rather than call this an underground river, it acted more as a pool of nutrition for the Man-eating Vines. Almost every Man-eating Vine had grown to maturity here.
After evolving to a certain level, they would gain the ability to clump into a ball like string, and roll around like a tyre as they pumped their heart-like blood sac, gradually moving outward. If they could not consume prey for long periods of time, or sustained any injuries, they could return to the underground river to gain sufficient nutrition.
After walking around the interior of the cave several times, Yang Ling did not find anything suspicious other than a giant blood sac. He decided to head toward the next perilous land and continue the search for the fabled relic of the giant dragon after resting for a moment.
Before he left, he tamed over a thousand Man-eating Vines and formed an army of Man-eating Vines. He then used the Imprisonment Restriction to move a large number of saplings and seeds into the space of the Wizard’s Pagoda and created a base of Man-eating Vines near the forest of Arrow Bamboos.
Even though he had not found the relic of the giant dragon during this trip, he did gain a large amount of spoils of war from the army of the Church, as well as a large army of Man-eating Vines, making it all worth it. Yang Ling believed that if he could nurture a large number of Man-eating Vines at areas like the Wissen Castle and the Five-colored Crystal Vein, these tactical areas would become much safer. An average person would definitely find it difficult to infiltrate the area.
